History of Red Herring Morris

Red Herring Morris was formed in January, 2000 by a merger of
Lemon & Capers Morris and Middlesex Morris.

Predecessors

Middlesex Morris, the Boston area's
first mixed team, was formed in the summer of 1984. Middlesex
Morris's founder was Sue Jick, who had started dancing with Oak Apple
morris in Madison, Wisconsin, and started Middlesex Morris when she
moved to Boston because she wanted to continue dancing on a mixed
team. Middlesex Morris originally performed dances in the Headington
style. Within the next few years, the team added Bledington and
Ilmington to its repertoire. In 1991, Middlesex Morris switched to
dancing exclusively Fieldtown dances.

Lemon &
Capers Morris was formed in 1985 by Kari Smith and other
alumnæ of Tony Barrand's "English Ritual Dance and
Drama" class at Boston University. Lemon & Capers was
initially a women's side; the team became mixed in 1993, when
declining membership might otherwise have forced them to disband.
Lemon & Capers originally performed exclusively its own version of
Bampton; probably the best-known dance written for this style is Simon's
Fancy, written by by Jocelyn Reynolds. The side added Duns Tew to
its repertoire in 1998.

The Merger

By the 1999 season, both Middlesex Morris and Lemon & Capers
were experiencing declining membership, resulting from members taking
time off to care for their children, moving away, or developing
chronic injuries that were aggrivated by dancing. In the spring of
1999, Middlesex Morris foreman Jeff Bigler approached Lemon &
Capers foreman Rebecca Jordan about the possibility of merging the two
teams.

In the fall of 1999, Middlesex Morris found that it no longer had
enough active members to continue dancing. The remaining members of
Middlesex voted to approach Lemon & Capers about merging the two
struggling teams into a single larger team.

Both teams separately discussed the idea of merging, and decided
to give it a try. The two teams held a combined AGM in January 2000
and voted to merge, with the newly formed team taking on the name
"Red Herring Morris".

Repertoire

Red Herring continued dancing the Duns Tew repertoire of Lemon
& Capers, adding some new stick dances to the existing repertoire
of hankie dances. The team added Sherborne dances in 2002, and Border
dances starting in 2005.

Kit

Red Herring's original kit, from 2000-2004, consisted of a gold
vest with scarlet trim and a herring emblem on the back, white
trousers, black shoes, and arm ribbons. In 2004-05, the kit was
changed to a white shirt, black trousers, red and yellow rosettes and
arm ribbons, a black bowler hat with a red band, and black shoes. In
the fall of 2005, the kit was changed to its present version, keeping
the bowler and black trousers, but switching to a red shirt and
omitting the rosettes.